Attack on Indian Consulate in San Francisco shameful; separatists don’t represent the voice of majority: Eminent Sikh-American Jassee Singh

Washington: Attack on the Indian Consulate in San Francisco by a group of Khalistan separatists, who does not represents the voice of the majority of the community, is a shameful incident, an eminent Sikh American said on Monday, urging both local officials and the federal administration to take action against the perpetrators.

A group of pro-Khalistan protesters on Sunday attacked and damaged the Indian Consulate in San Francisco.

Raising pro-Khalistan slogans, the protesters broke open the makeshift security barriers raised by the city police and installed two so-called Khalistani flags inside the Consulate premises. Two consulate personnel soon removed these flags.

Soon thereafter, a group of angry protesters entered the consulate premises and started hitting the door and windows with the iron rods.

"Everybody has the right to demonstrate in the United States. Same groups have been protesting in the past for many years. …But what we saw on Sunday in San Francisco was really, really shameful. We really condemn it,” eminent Sikh-American Jassee Singh from the Sikhs of America told PTI.

“Peaceful protests are very very much okay in this country. But getting into violent protests and damaging the property is very bad. This gives a very bad name to a very peaceful community here in the USA that one or two miscreants in that group went and did this. We strongly condemn it,” said Singh, a voice of the Sikh community in the US.

Responding to a question, Singh said that the Sikh separatist movement in America does not have any support from the masses.

“There are more than a million Sikhs living in North America now. But there are only a handful of people who want a separate nation. Yes, they have a right to ask for that. In this country, everybody has a right to their thinking, but I want to assure you that the majority of Sikhs….. would not support any kind of a movement that would disrupt the peace of Punjab in India,” he said.

Singh urged the administration to take action against those responsible for it.

“We want to take action against whoever did that violent act in San Francisco because this country allows us to do peaceful protests and we want to keep it that way. Whenever there are some issues, we have the right to demonstrate peacefully. But we would like the authorities to take strict action against people who committed violence in San Francisco at the Indian Consulate,” Singh said.

In London also, the tricolour flying atop the Indian High Commission was grabbed at by the protesters chanting pro-Khalistani slogans on Sunday, leading to an arrest related to the violent disorder.

In Canberra, Khalistan supporters gathered outside the Australian parliament to protest against police crackdown on radical preacher Amritpal Singh and his associates in Punjab.